Waste Pro taking over garbage service

The number of rollout garbage containers in Commerce is about to double.

As Waste Pro takes over residential garbage collection from Waste Management March 31, it will add a 65-gallon rollout recycling bin to every household — meaning each residence will have two rollout containers.

The recycling comes at no extra cost for Commerce residents. Waste Pro will pick up the recyclable materials every other Wednesday while providing the customary weekly garbage pickup.

That extra service without extra cost is a function of the system Waste Pro uses, according to Bob Wolk, senior division manager.



“Waste Management is using a two-man rear loader system with two, sometimes three guys on a truck,” he said. “We’re using a Mack automated side loader with an automated arm that will grab the cart and put it in.”

That, Wolk said, enables Waste Pro to service customers with one person per truck, reducing labor costs enough that it can offer curbside recycling at no extra cost.

While technically the Waste Pro contract does not start until April 1, Wolk said Waste Pro will take over on Monday, March 31, because “Waste Management will not be back after Friday.”

Wolk predicts that 20-25 percent of Commerce households will initially participate in recycling, a rate that will grow as time passes.

The collection schedules will change. Waste Pro will have three garbage pickup routes. On Mondays, the company will pick up from 814 households along Broad Street, on State Street and the roads that run off of State Street, and everything south and east of State Street and east of Broad Street (mostly Ward 2).

On Tuesdays, Waste Pro will collect from 720 customers from Homer Road north and east and out Old Maysville Road (wards 1 and 5) — basically everything on the east side of the tracks from Homer Road north.

Thursday’s route will cover everything on the Jefferson side of the railroad tracks with the exception of Westwood Drive and a few residences above Interstate 85. There are 785 pickups on that route.

Materials To Be Recycled

The city and Waste Pro ask residents to recycle the following items: glass bottles and jugs (lids removed) plastic bottles and jugs (except No. 6 plastic) plastic containers, food trays and cups (No. 1 and 7), rigid plastics, empty aerosol cans (lids removed) milk and juice cartons and boxes, junk mail, mixed paper, paper bags and newspaper, cereal and food boxes (flattened), cardboard and pizza boxes (flattened) magazines, phone books, catalogs, paperback books, metal food cans, aluminum cans, foil and trays.

Prohibited

Do not recycle the following: plastic bags, shredded paper, ceramics, pots and pans, glassware, paper plates, napkins, paper towels, batteries, light bulbs, wire hangers, food, clamshells or Styrofoam.

For maps of the collection routes, see Page 12A of the March 26 issue of The Commerce News.